40 CÁõh. ..J)tMj ((1 wonder if we shouldn't start hoarding" thing"s before it becomes unpatriotic again." . . since I also enjoyed watching the record turn and the needle travel in toward the center of the disc, I always stayed on the stool during the entire time my record was playing and kept the lid up. One Sunday afternoon, I realized, when one of my rlScords was almost fin- ished, that I had a decided advantage '-' over my sister in that I was already on the stool, so I decided to play another record. . " Wh d " "I " " at are you oIng r my SIster asked, in a whisper to keep from waking Father, when she saw me start to crank up the machine a second time. "I'm going to play another record," I whispered back, feeling very clever. " B ,. I d " " ut you ve Just p aye one, my SIS- " d " I ' " ter saI. t s my turn now. "Oh, is it?" I asked, still keeping my voice down. "Well, I'm up here and I , " I h " m gOIng to p ay anot er one. " If " " h d you try, my SIster t reatene , "I'll stop you-I'll pull you down." "That would wake up Father," I said, and I started to put another record on the turntable. " I d ' " " " d " I ' on t care, my sIster saI. t s my turn, so you just get right down." "Oh, go away," I answered, and started the machine. ] ust as I was lowering the needle, my sister took hold of my fight ankle with both her hands and jerked hard. I flipped over, and as I crashed down, the edge of the rosewood stool caught Ine just above the left eye. I let out a shriek, and Father jumped up from his chair. I scrambled to my feet, ready to tear in to my sister, having by this time a thoroughly bad conscience about the whole thing and being determined to brazen it out some way. I felt dazed and put my hand to my forehead. Feel- ing something wet, I drew my hand down and looked at it. As soon as I saw blood, I began to yell wildly, and my sister, who had been looking at me with complete disgust, suddenly realized that I had been hurt, and she, too, be- gan to scream. Father, still groggy from sleep, couldn't find out what had happened, for my sister, now con- vinced that I was bleeding to death and she had killed me, was unable to get out a coherent story, and I, though still dazed, was at least clear-headed enough to know that the best thing I could do was say nothing and weep loudly. Father found that my head had been cleanly laid open with an inch-and-a- half gash, too serious to be treated by NOVEMßER 2. 0, 1 948 home methods. Meanwhile, Mother, awakened by the racket, had come downstairs, and the cook and the amah, having heard the noise from the servants' quarters, had also come in. The amah added her cries to the din, assuming, with my sister, that I was dying. By the tIme Mother had shooed the servants off, pacified my sister, and made me lie down on the sofa, Father had gone to the compound telephone, got in touch wIth Dr. Rhodes, and told him what had happened. Dr. Rhodes said that he would probably have to take a few stitches and that Father and I should come to him jmmediately. He also gave F ather directions for bandaging me, so when Father got back, he told Mother to dampen a clean washcloth and bring it to him. \\Then Mother returned with the washcloth, Father folded it in four and bound it over my wound with a wide band of white gauze. Mother had got enough of the story from my sister to know that I had started the fracas, so she told my sister to stop crying. Every time Mother looked at me, I closed my eyes and whimpered bravely. As soon as Father thought I had re- covered sufficiently from the shock, he and I set out by streetcar for the Inter- national Settlement. I was very con- scious of my bandage, and when I saw that all the Chinese and foreigners with us were lookIng at me with sympathy, I began to enjoy the ride. Since my head really didn't hurt a great deal, I felt that my sister had done me a good turn in enlivening an otherwise some- what dull Sunday afternoon. By the time we reached Dr. Rhodes, he had been able to get in touch with his office nurse, a very good-looking young Chinese woman, who took me to the examination room and prepared me for having the gash closed. She was most attractive and treated me gently, but I was frightened at the thought of being sewn up. I asked her if it would hurt much. "Oh, I don't think you'll feel any- thing," she said. "The Doctor will probably give you a local anesthetic to take away the pain." Father and Dr. Rhodes came into the examination room, and before long Dr. Rhodes had me sewn up and gor- geously bandaged with what looked like an enormous mushroom of cotton riding over my left eye. Then he and Father went back to the outer office whIle the nurse cleaned up. The door to the office had been left ajar, and for a time I half listened to their conversation. After a while, Fa-